The Girl with an Oar sculpture was re-introduced to Gorky Park in 2011. Originally installed in 1935, it was then a controversial piece of art, and endured criticism, a likely theft or vandalism, revision, and then destruction by Nazi bombs. Everyone associated with the statue died the year the statue was destroyed: 1941. The statue […]

The iconic monument on Volgograd’s Mamayev Kurgan Hill is in need of some serious care. Valentina Klyushina, curator of The Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad memorial complex, of which the statue is a part, said that The Motherland Calls statue needs serious help. According to Klyushina, Nikolai Nikitin, the lead designer of the monument, […]

Allie Bull studied Russian language and art over the summer of 2013 on a customized program with SRAS. As part of her studies, Allie has begun a blog “exploring what Socialist Realism is, how it emerged, major themes, and this art today.” She also discusses, in part, her studies abroad. See more about Allie’s work […]

Moscow-based AES+F Collective’s body of work is reflective of the nuanced backgrounds of collective members Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich, Evgeny Svyatsky and Vladimir Fridkes — the first letters of their last names creating the group’s moniker. Husband and wife Evzovich (b. 1958) and Arzamasova (b. 1955) trained as “conceptual architects” at the Moscow Architectural Institute. […]

Zurab Konstatinovich Tsereteli was born in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on January 4, 1934. A somewhat controversial figure, he is a well-known painter, sculptor, architect and decorator, known best for his works of monumental size and often controversial abstraction. He is perhaps Russia’s best politically-connected artist. In addition to serving in the Public Chamber […]

One must really have the desire to find the Pushkinskaya-10 Art Center if they are to visit it. Located in an otherwise inconspicuous courtyard off Ligovsky Prospect, it hides tucked behind the bright signs surrounding the Moskovsky railway station in downtown St. Petersburg, just a bit more visible than when its entrance was located around […]

Socialist Realism was the official artistic movement of the U.S.S.R. It was attached not only to the revolution but to the forward momentum of the communist ideology and Soviet apparatus. As an artistic movement it is still a controversial topic. It is also a difficult one, because so much is encompassed in the concept. At […]

Once the workshop of one of Moscow’s most famous modern sculptors, the Burganov Museum is one of the few Moscow museums dedicated to the work of a living artist. First and foremost a workshop, the museum is constantly changing and holds the works of Burganov, his wife, son, and friends. Alexander Burganov is perhaps best […]